[This article is part of the Learner's Maya Glyph Guide.]
CMGG entry for joy

Translation: accession to rulership or some other important office; revelation; debut
Part of speech: Noun

Logogram spellings of joy

                                                   

K&L.p37.#5                                                        TOK.p33.r5.c2                 BMM9.p20.r2.c4                  25EMC.pdfp37.#7.2&3&4 = K&L.p37.#5.1&2&3

JOY                                                                      JOY                                    JOY                                    

 

                                                                                                                           

JM.p117.#2                      JM.p117.#3                           25EMC.pdfp37.#7.1 = JM.p119.#3             JM.p119.#4                JM.p120.#1                          MC.p163.r6.c8

jo+JOY                               jo.<JOY+ja>                           JOY                                  JOY                           JOY+ja                         <JOY+ja>.<ji:ya>                  JOY+ja

 

              

ZB3.1&2                                                          684ex

JOY                                                                   JOY?

 

                                  

ZB3.3                                                              684st

JOY                                                                  JOY?

 

                                                  

MHD (Kerr)                                      MHD (Kerr)                                 MHD {Looper archive)

K1463 D                                            K3026 E1                                    FLRM-1.2.159.53 B1
ti.<JOY+ja>{l}                                   ti.<JOY+ja>{l}                              ti.<JOY+ja>.la

 

                                                                                                                                                                                                      

MHD (Houston, Tokovinine)                                                          MHD (Houston, Tokovinine)                                                                 MHD (Stuart)                     

Dumbarton Oaks Research Library PC.B.539 Panel H2             Dumbarton Oaks Research Library PC.B.539 Panel J4                     CRN Element 56 pC7        

<JOY+ja>.<ti:<sa.ja>:<la.le{l}>>                                                     <JOY+ja>.<ti:<sa.ja>:<*la.le{l}>>                                                          ti:<JOY+ja>:AJAW{lel}       

 

                                                                                                                                                                     

MHD (Graham)                MHD (Graham)                                           MHD (von Euw)                        MHD (Montgomery)                         MHD (Montgomery)                 

DPL Stela 8 H18               NAR Stela 6 A3                                            NAR Stela 20 A4                       PNG Altar 2 E2                                   PNG Stela 15 B1                         

JOY+ja                               <<JOY+*ja>:AJAW:<li/le>{l}>.ti                 ti.<<JOY+ja>:AJAW>               ti.<<JOY+ja>:AJAW:le{l}>                 <JOY+*ja>.<ti:AJAW:le:wa>     

 

                                                                                                                                                                                     

MHD (Montgomery)                              MHD (Montgomery)                              MHD (Graham)                                         MHD (Tokovinine)                                                                

PNG Stela 16 C5                                      PNG Throne 1 G'3-H'3                           YAX Lintel 30 H5                                       YAX Stela 11 N4                                                                    

ti.<<JOY+*ja>:AJAW:le{l}>                     <JOY+ja>.<ti:AJAW:le:le>                     <JOY+ja>.<ti:AJAW:le{l}>                         jo.<JOY+ja>                                                                            

 

                                                                                                                                        

MHD (Mathews)                            MHD (Tokovinine, Zender)                      MHD (Stuart)                                MHD (Montgomery)                           

BPK Stela 2 C1                                MTL Stela 1 A8                                           PNG Stela 8 G3                             PNG Stela 14 B11                                

<jo+JOY>.ja                                     <jo+JOY>.ja                                                  <*jo+JOY>.ja                                 ti.<<<*jo+JOY>.ja>:AJAW>              

 

                                                                                                                                                                                               

MHD (Graham)                                                         MHD (Graham)                                                             MHD (Tokovinine)                                                                

SBL Stela 7 A2                                                           TNA Monument 181, Fragment 34 B7                     YAX Stela 11 DD11                                                                

<<jo+JOY>:{ji}ya>.<*ti:*AJAW:*le{l}>                   <jo+JOY>.ja                                                                   <jo+JOY>.<ti:AJAW:le{l}:wa>                                               

 

                                                                                                              

MHD (Schele)                                                  MHD (Schele)                                                                MHD (Schele)

PAL Palace Tablet P9                                     PAL Palace Tablet R7                                                    PAL Palace Tablet R17

<K’AN:na>.<<JOY+CHITAM>:ma>               K’INICH.<<<[K’AN]CHITAM>+JOY>:*ma>                 K’INICH.<<<[K’AN]CHITAM>+JOY>:*ma>

 

                                                                                                                                                            

MHD (Polyukhovych)                                          MHD (Stuart)                                                      MHD (Looper)

PAL Palace Stucco Fragment 2 P2                    PAL Temple 19 Platform A5                             PAL Temple 21 Bench glyph-block #21

<K’AN:na>.<JOY+CHITAM>                               <K’AN:na>.<<JOY+CHITAM>:ma>                    <K’AN:na>.<<JOY+CHITAM>.ma?>              

 

                                                                                                                   

MHD (Schele)                                                    MHD (Greene)                                                                      MHD (Greene)

PAL TC Tablet S15                                             PAL Palace TSarcophagus Lid Edge  E19                          PAL Temple of the Inscriptions W7

<K’AN:na>.<<JOY+CHITAM>:ma>                  <OCH:BIH>.<<K’AN.na>:<JOY+CHITAM>:ma>                <<[K’AN]CHITAM>+JOY>:ma

 

                                                                                                                        

MHD (Schele)                                                    Schele                 = MHD (Tokovinine)                                                            

PAL TS Tablet P4                                               Dumbarton Oaks Unprovenanced Panel 2 H1 (PAL region)                  

<K’AN:na>.<<JOY+CHITAM>:ma>                  K’AN:na>.<JOY+CHITAM>                                                                            

 

                                                                                    

MHD (Stuart, Schele)                            MHD (Tokovinine)                               MHD (Montgomery) = MHD (Macri)                   MHD (Schele)

CRN Panel 2 A2-B2                                NAR Stela 47 A2                                   PNG Stela 36 B8                                                      TIK Ballcourt Marker / Marcador E2                                                     <JOY>.ja ti.<AJAW:le:wa>                    JOY.<ti:<pi.tzi>                                      <ti.<JOY>:le{l}>:AJAW                                            JOY+<ti+ja?>>

 

                                            

MHD (Graham, Gronemeyer) = MHD (Looper)                  

TRT Monument 6 K4                                                               

<<JOY+ti>.ni>:ya                                                                      

 

·    No glyphs given in K&H.

·    Features:

o The glyph is shaped like a T, with the top bar of the T a “bow” and the central bar of the T a single vertical band.

o It seems to represent a long, narrow strip of cloth, “binding” an object in the middle, vertically, with a “knot” or “bow” at the top to keep it all tight and secure.

o Its form is unusual in that it is neither a “boulder outline” (= “main sign”) nor a “flint outline” (= “rotatable glyph”). It’s definitely not rotatable, as the central band part of the cloth is always vertical, and the “bow” is always on top, but non-rotatable glyphs are usually boulder-outline “main signs”, which this is not.

o As a result of its unusual form, it always has some other glyph conflated with it, in order to form all or part of the squarish or rectangular outlines required in Maya glyph-blocks. This other glyph is:

§ ja: To write the inflection -aj, turning the verb joy to the noun joyaj (see below).

§ jo: As an initial phonetic complement of JOY.

§ ti: the full-form bird head, with a reduced ti as forehead ornament (e.g., CRN Panel 2 A2).

§ Some other animal head, reflecting the name of the ruler associated which incorporates joy in it – for example, CHITAM, for K’an Joy Chitam, a ruler of PAL. In this regard, I have some doubt as to the reading of the (bird) head in CRN Panel 2 A2, NAR Stela 47, and PNG Stela 36 B8.

·      It seems unlikely to be the full form of the syllabogram ti, as there is already a reduced form of ti very close by - in the next glyph-block (left side of CRN Panel 2 B2), on the top right (NAR Stela 47 A2), and on the left (PNG Stela 36 B8).

·      It’s also unlikely to be the “vulture head” AJAW, as there is already a “ben ich” reduced variant nearby – in the next glyph-block (top right of CRN Panel 2 B2), and on the top (PNG Stela 36 B8).

·      Lastly, the name of the accessing ruler (Xook Mo’ Chaak, Itzam K’an Ahk) appears in subsequent glyph-blocks, after PNG Stela 36 B8, making it unlikely that this bird head is part of the ruler’s name.

·      There is hence an argument for the existence of a “full form” of the T-shaped JOY glyph, with a bird-head component giving the glyph a boulder outline (but not adding anything to the reading). This component then usually gets “displaced” by jo, ja, ti, or (part of) the name of the person associated with the JOY. This possibility is supported the examples given on the catalogs of MHD and TWKM: MHD.ZB3.3 and 684st respectively, which have a bird head. [Note that a similar phenomenon is seen in K’ABA’, with it’s characteristic (rotated) L-shape. This too is not a boulder outline, but a “K’UH” nestled in the L provides the required boulder outline (but plays no part in the reading of the glyph). It’s often displaced by some form of ch’ok = “youth” which is then read. See K’ABA’ for more information.]

·    Screenshot examples in CMGG are typically shown in alphabetical order of the site of the inscription they come from (and, within the same site, in alphabetical order of the type of object the inscription is on, and, for the same type of object, in the “sequence number” of the object, e.g., Lintel 1, 2, 3). For JOY however, there’s an additional sort criterion which takes greater precedence: the glyph conflated with the JOY to produce the boulder outline. These are shown in the order ja, jo, ti, <animal head>. Within each of these groupings, the examples are listed in alphabetical order of site, etc. When writing jo-JOY-ja (with both the initial phonetic completement and the -aj suffix present), the jo will “displace” the ja as the glyph which is conflated with the JOY, and the ja moves to being to the right of the <jo+JOY>.

·    JM.p120.#1 has a very unusual way of writing the -jiiy verbal inflection. Normally, it’s written as a conflation <ji+ya>, where three of the “horseshoes” of the “four horseshoe” variant of syllabogram ji remain, while the fourth (an “internal” horseshoe, not the one on the left or right, usually the third from the left) is replaced by the smaller, “internal” dots of the middle of the syllabogram ya. (Occasionally, a slight variant of this is to have just two horseshoes of the ji on one side and the central dots and one longer, flowing “leaf” of the ya on the other.) Here, in JM.p120.#1, however, we see that apparently only two of the elements of syllabogram ya are present (“at the bottom right of the glyph-block”), while, above that, the “animal paw” variant of the syllabogram ji replaces the rest of syllabogram ya. At least, that’s one way of reading it.

·    FLRM = Fundación La Ruta Maya, Guatemala City, Guatemala.

·    Before the decipherment of both pronunciation and meaning, this glyph was nicknamed the “toothache glyph”. This perhaps arose because of K’inich K’an Joy Chitam, where the JOY is conflated with the head of an animal (CHITAM), producing the impression of a head bound in a large bandage because of an aching jaw or tooth. Such an association / nickname would not have arisen from a conflation of jo+JOY or JOY+ja , as can be seen in the examples above.

·    JOY is a noun, with joyaj being the verb derived from a noun – L&D.p42.pdfp42: The suffix -Vj (-aj or -iij depending on the case) derives intransitive verbs from nouns or adjectives with the meaning of ‘to do what the root indicates’. The derived verbs are always intransitive. [Sim:

o L&D explicitly gives the example of: joy ‘debut’ joy-aj ‘to debut, make something for the first time’.

o It’s hence important to realize that joyaj is not a passive (i.e., it is not johyaj as the passive form of a verb joy).]

·    Usage:

o joyaj ti – here, a verb – probably the most common usage:

§ joyaj ti ajawlel = “he debuted in (the) rulership” = “he accessed to being the ruler”.

§ joyaj ti sajalel = “he debuted in (the) sajalship” = “he accessed to being the sajal”.

o ti joyajal – here, a noun (the -al is a suffix with derives nouns from verbs) – a much less common usage (MHD has only three hits for “blmaya1 contains joyajal” (2026-02-09)):

§ ubaah ti joyajal = “(It is) his image in accession”, e.g., see above: K1463 D, K3026 E1, FLRM-1.2.159.53 B1.